Me: PROBLEM! I'm not allowed to exceed 10, 000 words! This has to be the last chapter or the second to last chapter, or I'll exceed! But it's barely half-way over! GAH! Huh? *has re-checked the limit* Nope, it's 20, 000 words… *relief*
Ike: *silent after the spasm*
Marth: Draconis Kitten Sweetie doesn't own SSBB or anything else she may possibly reference.
Ike: …
Marth: What? Some one had to do the disclaimer!
*SSBB*
"This is her ball; catch!" Lucario calls as she throws the red and white sphere to Marth. The prince jumps forward to catch it, forgetting how Ike is bigger than him, failing to catch the ball but succeeding in tripping and falling flat on the ground.
Ike snickers at him and Lucario just sighs, hoping for their sakes they work this out soon and looks to the princess of the sea as Manaphy pops out of the ball sitting next to Marth.
"Ask her why she switched us," Ike says. Marth gets into sitting and Lucario rolls her eyes and does so.
"Lucario, Lu Lu Lu Cario Cario Lu Lu, Car Car Lu Cario Cario," Lucario says to Manaphy. Marth and Ike get hopelessly lost in a matter of seconds.
"Mana!" Manaphy replies with a giggle. "Man Mana Manaphy Ma Man; Phy Mana Man Mana Phy Man."
Lucario quickly translates for the two, utterly confused swordsmen. "Because, they were arguing so much; I thought it would be fun."
Marth and Ike frown and nod, this time Marth talking. "Can you ask her if she can switch us back?"
"She can understand you, you know."
Marth sighs in aggravation. "Well then, Manaphy, can you switch us back?"
Manaphy giggles again, now turning to talk to Marth. "Man."
"No."
"Well why not?" Ike exclaims in response to Lucario's translated answer.
Manaphy starts laughing, answering them. "Mana Phy Ma Mana!"
"Because this is funny."
"You have to switch us back sometime!"
"Phy Man Manaphy."
"I will eventually."
"When is eventually?" Marth asks in near distress.
"Man Man Mana Phy Ma Mana."
"When you defeat Fox and Wolf." Marth and Ike frown at that answer, both looking to her.
"But you'd have to switch us back for us to fight them," Ike points out.
"Man. Ma Na Phy Mana Manaphy."
"No. Do it in those bodies." The second the translation reaches them, Marth and Ike groan, irritated with the princess of the sea.
"And then you'll switch us back?" Marth asks.
"Phy!" Manaphy chirps, nodding happily. Marth sighs, grabbing her Poké Ball to return her and carry her with them, when she suddenly cries out and jumps on his leg. "Mana Mana Naphy Phy!"
"What'd she say?" Marth asks in confusion to Lucario, who's frowning.
"Please don't return me," Lucario says skeptically.
The prince gently pries the water type of his leg, holding her at eye level. "Why shouldn't we return you?"
"Phy Na Mana Man Mana!" She cries.
"I get bored and lonely." Marth sighs at that response.
"We'll leave you out, but ONLY if you promise not to cause any trouble!" Marth says, adding the last part quickly.
"Na Mana!" She chimes happily. Lucario doesn't bother translating; leaving the room before they could ask and wishing them luck. The princess of the sea jumps into Marth's arms, happily chirping her name.
Ike looks to the royal (if Manaphy really is royal, he can't exactly be sure…) duo with an arched eyebrow. "Well. We have some training to do." Marth nods and gives a small shrug, and the two leave to go to the battlefield stage.
*SSBB*
"Hold it a little longer!" Ike urges. Marth is trying and failing to pull off Quick Draw, nearly propelling himself off the edge that time. The two left the princess of the sea back at the mansion so she wouldn't get hurt/in the way.
"Maybe I should try something else…" Marth growls as he nearly falls off stage, righting himself before he can and pivoting to face Ike. Ike sighs, though agrees that taking a break from Quick Draw may be a good idea, saying he should try with Eruption now.
Marth adopts the stance Ike does whenever he uses Eruption, feeling overly foolish doing so as nothing happens but him lifting and holding a blade over his head.
"Come on Marth, focus, you have to focus!" Ike says urgently. Marth desperately tries to, though still, nothing happens. "Now you just look constipated." Marth stops his attempt at Eruption, pivoting on his heel to face Ike and glaring down at him.
Ike just rolls his eyes, saying he should take a break with that move for a bit. "Maybe, just try regular attacking, and smash attacks," suggests the mercenary. Marth reluctantly agrees seeing as he failed every other move, and Ike motions to the cameras all over the stage for Luke in the control room to drop a sand bag. A second later, a sand bag appears with a small 'pop'.
"M'kay, give it all you got," Ike says as if welcoming Marth, gesturing to the sand bag that is going to get attacked. Marth begins his assault of the sandbag, though Ike stops him before he can attack enough to even get it to fly backwards from the force of the blow.
"What was that?" Ike asks incredulously. Marth arches an eyebrow at his friend. Loosely using the word.
"I attacked it; just like you said," Marth argues with a frown, shifting his weight to be leaning on Ragnell, tip resting on the bricked ground.
Ike narrows his eyes at Marth. "Not from the look of it. You looked more like you were dancing."
Marth growls at him. Luke, in the control room, wonders whether or not to leave, seeing as they seem to be ready to kill each other already…
"You can't win a battle with purely power," Marth starts, silencing Ike with a glare as the boy snorts a half-laugh. "You have to have some sort of strategy, you have to have speed, and intelligence; which leads me to wonder how you managed to get to Brawl in the first place."
Marth looks smug as Ike hisses at him. Luke, deciding he'll deal with the consequences later, puts it on air like a Brawl, giving bored Brawlers (Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Manaphy, Peach, Lucario, Jigglypuff, and Snake. The rest didn't care enough to watch.) a chance at entertainment in watching the two fight.
"You can't get by with just speed and intelligence!" Ike snaps. "You *need* power to win. Without power, you're just running from the fight, seeing as you wouldn't be able to do ANYTHING."
"But I never said you didn't need power," Marth points out, keeping his cool by now as Ike glares at him. "Of course you need power, but you can't *only* have power."
"I never said you only need power," Ike retorts with a poisonous grin, spitting Marth's words back at him.
As the fight continues, the brawlers watching start taking sides. Peach, without a second's hesitation, starts defending Marth's case. Every one ignores her, seeing as she probably picked that side seeing as she has a giant crush on him. So far, everyone in the room has put together the two are each other, it would explain the random Manaphy the dropped off anyways.
As the small group bickers and converses over the argument, the stop dead and watch when the volume increases.
"No way!" Marth shouts, the two of them now bristling at each other. "Ragnell cannot possibly be harder to handle! All you have to do is freaking hit the enemy five times and you win!"
"No way!" Ike yells back. "Handling such a heavy weapon makes you slower, so I have to be sure not to leave myself open for a second if I want to win! With you and Falchion you can just hit them as many times as you need with out getting hurt if the enemy is slow!"
"You're brain dead!" Marth hisses back. "Falchion and I may be fast but we're not as powerful as you! The enemy recovers quicker and can hit back! After you hit them; you're safe for a good fives seconds!"
"He's not wrong…" Snake mutters to no one as the group watches the fight.
"And it takes me half that time to get in a proper fighting stance once more seeing as Ragnell's so heavy!" Ike retorts. "So that leaves me, what, two and a half seconds to prepare myself for the oncoming attacker?"
"Aren't you always the one telling everyone to 'Prepare yourself'?" Marth taunts. "And whenever you're in a fix you could just counter them!"
"You would know, considering how many times you've attacked me with my own move," Ike replies scrathchingly. "Well, smart ass, my counter doesn't come up as fast. I need to be able to predict the hit so much sooner than you do. Which takes, huh, look at that; INTELLIGENCE."
"Fine, ONE of your moves requires some form of intelligence," Marth spits with a glare. "But honestly, if you can pick up this freaking hunk of metal, you can fight with it."
"DON'T YOU GO INSULTING HER." The second Ike says it, everyone freezes, including himself.
"… Did you just call Ragnell a her?" Marth finally asks.
"… … … Yes…" Ike replies finally, red in embarrassment.
"…"
"…"
"… Honestly… I think of Falchion as a he," Marth says after approximately ten silent seconds.
And the two burst out laughing.
The group in the rec room watching the t.v. has nothing to say.
"… Is the fight over?" Link finally asks. As if on cue, Luke ends the transmission, seeing as the entertaining part of the battle is now over.
*SSBB*
Hours later and the two are *still* training. Luke is utterly bored. I mean, the two would find a way off eventually, right?
Marth seems to be decent by now, though still has trouble with his aerial Aether. Ike on the other hand, has only mastered Dolphin Slash, Shield Breaker, and Counter. He still can't do regular attacks or Dancing Blade.
"Come on, it's not that hard," Marth says rather amused as Ike falls on his face after tripping over his cape once more.
"Easy for you to say…" Ike mutters as he climbs to his feat again. "It is *your* move. I won't be mastering it instantly."
"Yeah, not instantly, though, as Luke once decided to tell me, 'You can do it if you really try'!" Marth says with a grin and a somewhat sing-songy voice.
"And people call *you* gay…" Ike says with the same grin. Luke huffs in the control room, red faced.
"I resent that!" He barks through the mike onto the field. The swordsmen snicker, which quickly turns to yelps as Luke evilly drops Bomb-ombs rapidly onto the field like in sudden death. Geez, why didn't he think of this soon?
"Okay! Okay! We take it back! AH!" Ike yelps. A Bomb-omb spawns directly over him, though lucky for him, he goes faster than before and manages to evade. Luke pouts, continuing his assault.
Marth, probably looking like a really smart lunatic, is repeatedly quick drawing back and forth, managing to avoid any blasts. Luke, deciding it's fun, puts it on air and continues his assault. The smashers by the TV (Link, Zelda, Pikachu, Manaphy, Peach, Lucario, and Samus. The rest didn't care enough to watch) look to the battle again, grinning and laughing at Marth and Ike's expense.
"I respect your speed by now, Marth!" Ike says with a rather arrogant grin, back-flipping over a spawning Bomb-omb.
"You better!" Said prince retorts with a small laugh. "Quick Draw isn't half-bad either."
"Enough of the love fest, I wanna see someone blow up!" Link and Samus say simultaneously, word for word. The two look to each other with equally freaked out expressions. The rest of the room snickers at them.
To Link and Samus's delight, a Bob-omb spawns directly over Ike. Ike doesn't see it, though Marth does. Acting on impulse, the prince easily uses Quick Draw and pulls him away from the explosion. Link and Samus groan and gripe, especially as the bombs stop.
Ike chokes on being pulled out of the way, falling over onto Marth, who yelps and falls to the ground with Ike half on top of him. Luke stops the bombs when neither get up, all listening closely when the two decide it's a perfectly good time to start a conversation.
"You know, I have to apologize for he way I acted as of late," Marth replies, turning his head to face Ike, the two of them both too tired to care about their current position.
"Geez, you'd think we're watching a soap opera…" Samus mutters. The room grunts a rather amused yet still interested agreement, Link actually high-fiving the snickering bounty huntress.
No one notices as Manaphy chirps her name happily.
"So do I," Ike agrees rather sheepishly. Ike and Marth continue their conversation, still not having moved, when Luke gets an amusing idea.
Luke spawns a heart container directly over them, leaving them to watch it sink down to the ground in confusion. The two don't get it, though the group watching instantly bursts into hysterics.
"Aw…" Luke says with a fake heartwarming grin over the mike. "Should I give you two some privacy?"
The swordsmen instantly become beet red, scrambling away from each other. Ike looks to Marth and Marth looks to Ike, exchanging small nods.
"Luke, we're done training."
Said Trainer laughs, teleporting them back to the mansion. They appear in the special room they have for training, Luke going to meet them. Before he can get to them, they look to each other, speaking simultaneously.
"Jump him on three."
*SSBB*
After thoroughly maiming Luke, the two swordsmen travel to the rec room to pick up Manaphy so she can watch their battle against Fox and Wolf. Though the other brawlers jump them before they can say anything. Not literally of course…
"Aw, look, it's the happy couple," Link says with a smirk-ish grin, leaning back into the couch. Samus laughs and sprawls out on her chair, making a heart in her hands at the two while Zelda just sighs disapprovingly at their actions. Peach glares at Ike in Marth's body.
"Luke broadcast the training," Zelda says to answer the horrified looks of Marth and Ike.
The prince glares at Link, and the mercenary glares at Samus, until they both get an idea and cry 'Manaphy!' at the same time. The princess of the sea looks up at her name, met with evil grins of determination.
"Instead of Fox and Wolf, can we battle Link and Samus?" Marth asks hopefully. Manaphy gives a small grin and a giggle, and instead of answering, switches them right there and then. They look to each other, shocked to be seeing, well, each other, before looking to Manaphy.
"Why did you switch us?" Ike asks with wide eyes.
The princess giggles. "Man Na Mana Ma Phy, Ma Phy Mana Man Mana! Mana, Phy Man Mana Ma Manaphy Phy Manaphy."
"Urgh, I have to translate again?" Lucario asks unhappily, but does so anyway. "You two finally made up, so I switched you back! Though, I still want you to battle Link and Samus." The two look to the princess, thinking she has an evil plan in mind, though agree to anyway, the four brawlers in question running off to go to Final Destination.
*SSBB*
The battle was over as soon as it started. The two swordsmen, who were happy to be themselves, realized why Manaphy switched them back the second they tried attacking. Ike is knocked offstage early on by Samus as Marth fails to fend off Link and, in an attempt to Dolphin Slash his way closer to the edge when he could have used Quick Draw, ends up killing himself.
He appears on his pedestal seeing as it's a three live match, none to happy with the fact he managed to die so early on. Marth tries to Quick Draw away from Link so he can have time to prepare himself, though ends up using Dancing Blade in the wrong direction. Link easily sends him flying off stage with a half-charged smash, laughing hysterically as he flails mid-air and doesn't Dolphin Slash to the edge in time.
"Dammit, we're doomed," Ike groans as Marth lands, the two of them getting their butts kicked seeing as they refuse to forfeit.
Suddenly, a Smash Ball appears. Samus and Link decide mentally not to try too hard to get it, knowing they have a hilarious fail to watch if they don't get it.
Marth ends up breaking it, looking pleased. Samus and Link start to avoid him, but not too far away. Marth gets close enough to jump up in front of them, and uses his Final Smash while both are still above him, thinking of Great Aether.
The poor prince shouts his displeasure as he uses Critical Hit right off the stage.
Manaphy, watching in the rec room, is laughing hysterically. She can't help but think she did her job perfectly. Not only did she manage to help break up an annoying argument, but she gets a hilarious match to watch as well! Not to mention the fact she gets to stay out of her ball now.
Another job well done, she thinks to herself, giggling quietly as Ike and Marth lost without taking a single life.
*SSBB*
Me: When the contest is over and the results are released, I'm going to continue this. This was supposed to have another chapter to it, but I didn't have enough time (I'm a horrible procrastinator). But on another note, did you like this terrible ending I put together? I swear, it'll be better when I re-write it.
Luke: Am I supposed to say good-bye and thank them for reading then?
*no body answers*